Altadena woman held in connection with husband's fatal stabbing released

ALTADENA - A woman arrested over the weekend on suspicion of stabbing her husband to death has been released from jail pending further investigation, officials said Wednesday.

Breta Durham, 55, was arrested Saturday after her husband, 47-year-old Robin Steve Martin, was found stabbed and fatally wounded in front of the apartment complex where the couple lived in the 900 block of Mariposa Street, according to Los Angeles County sheriff's and coroner's officials.

Martin died from his injuries at a hospital several hours after Saturday's 1:27 p.m. stabbing, Detective Gary Sica of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Homicide Bureau said.

But on Tuesday, he said, detectives presented the case against her to prosecutors at the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, who declined to file a murder charge and requested additional investigation.

A knife believed to have been the murder weapon was recovered at the scene, however Sica declined to describe it, citing the ongoing investigation.

Further information about the motive or circumstances of the fatal stabbing were also not released.